Jaime, Kedzo and Wieliczko to compete for a spot in the National Indoor Championships

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (October 13, 2011) – The ETSU women’s tennis team will head to the River City this weekend, as the Buccaneers begin play at the USTA/ITA Ohio Valley Regional Championships on Saturday inside the Racquet Club at 10 a.m. (9 a.m. CT).

The qualifying singles and doubles draws take place all day on Friday, with those who advance two rounds earning a spot in the main draws on Saturday. Main draw action begins Saturday morning and concludes with the championship rounds on Tuesday morning at 11 a.m. (10 a.m. CT).

Student-athletes from 20 different teams throughout the region are set to take their shot at winning the regional singles or doubles championship. By doing so, they will qualify for the National Indoor Championships which are to take place in November.

Seniors Paula Jaime (Madrid, Spain), Karina Kedzo (Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela) and Marine Wieliczko (Rouen, France) will be representing ETSU at the regional championships, and are set to begin play on Saturday after already having qualified through to the singles main draw. Jaime and Kedzo will pair up for a shot at the doubles championship as well. The duo is the seventh seeded pair in the doubles draw.

Jaime’s road to the singles championship puts her up against the draw’s No. 1 seed in the very first round. Natalie Pluskota, a senior for the Lady Vols out of Newnan Ga., is Jaime’s first round opponent. The senior was named First-Team All-SEC last season, and is currently ranked No. 29 in the ITA Preseason Singles Rankings.

Kedzo’s Saturday match is against a member of the host school’s squad in Tiffany Welcher. The redshirt senior from Clarksville, Ind. is in her first season with Memphis after transferring from Alabama, where she was a member of the Tide for four seasons.

Wieliczko awaits one of the eight Friday qualifiers in her opening round match on Saturday.

The first Buccaneers to hit the court will be Jaime and Kedzo in their doubles match on Saturday morning. They will take on Miami’s (OH) team of Raymond and Parr. ETSU beings singles play on Saturday afternoon, when Jaime takes on the top seeded Pluskota at 2 p.m. (1 p.m. CT).

For more information on ETSU tennis please visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the tennis links.